1.47 September ERA speaks volumes for Astros’ bullpen

Josh James, who can bring 100 mph heat and pitch multiple innings, had two effective relief outings during the Astros’ six-game road trip and is presenting them with a tantalizing bullpen option for the postseason.

Photo: Paul Sancya, STF / Associated Press

DETROIT — Ryan Pressly’s right arm was wrapped with a tan bandage to keep the ice cooling his right shoulder. Celebratory postgame music blared in the background while a television camera confronted the reliever at his locker at Comerica Park.

Pressly threw a perfect ninth inning in Wednesday’s 5-4 Astros win over the Tigers. For the second time in his six-year major league career, he earned a save.

“End on a good note going into the offseason,” the righthander said before catching his flub, laughing wearily and continuing.

“Going into this off day,” he said. “We need this off day.”

By design, September brings burgeoning bullpens. The Astros’ 12-man group is flourishing. Continuing that during a fatiguing six-game road trip reaffirmed what many who follow the club surmised.

“September always makes you feel good. You have enough numbers, (and) you have enough people,” manager A.J. Hinch said Sunday at Fenway Park. “But both the guys that we had here before and the guys that we’ve added have given us as strong a bullpen as I’ve ever had while I’ve been the manager here.”

Since Sept. 1, Astros’ relievers have a 1.47 ERA. No other major league bullpen boasts one under 2.10. Opponents have struck six extra-base hits in that span and are slugging just .237 against them.

Roles are defined with more comfort than perhaps in any other season of Hinch’s tenure. Pressly, he of 131/3 consecutive scoreless innings, is the seventh-inning man.

He was required to close Wednesday after Roberto Osuna collected saves during four of the team’s previous five games. Hector Rondon assumes the eighth inning.

“This is a really good bullpen,” Pressly said. “Osuna, Rondon, (Collin) McHugh — the list just goes on and on and on. Having these guys in here, we’re able to give guys breaks and certain days off. I think everybody has the trust in every single reliever down there.”

Osuna has has thrown seven times in September. Three hits and one earned run are on his line. Each outing required no more than 15 pitches.

Osuna’s fastball/slider combination is renowned, but the more liberal incorporation of his changeup keeps hitters off balance.He’s already thrown the changeup 11 times in September. Osuna never threw it more than 10 times in any month last year. He threw it 21 times in August, the most since 2015.

Osuna declined comment for this story.

“Probably the most impressive thing out of him is the no panic, no stress, no anxiety when it comes to huge moments in the game,” Hinch said. “He’s calm, he has a plan, he can execute his plan. He doesn’t waver under any sort of stress. … This guy can throw four or five pitches whenever he wants.”

Two of the dozen relievers the Astros are carrying on their expanded roster — Cionel Perez and Dean Deetz — are not candidates to throw leverage innings. Brad Peacock is away from the club while combating a case of hand, foot and mouth disease.

The remaining nine men were forced to cover 202/3 innings on a two-city road trip whose six games were all decided by three runs or fewer. They allowed two extra-base hits and six earned runs and struck out 29.

Two of the six runs arrived on Nicholas Castellanos’ homer off Josh James in Wednesday’s seventh inning.

“Our bullpen is gassed,” Hinch said. “We’ve had some guys step up and pitch well.”

James tossed 52/3 innings in two outings during the trip. His work was vital, preserving the exhausted staff following two five-inning efforts by a starting pitcher.

The Astros carried seven men in last season’s ALDS bullpen. Ostensibly, four spots — Osuna, Rondon, Pressly and McHugh — are already guaranteed. Lance McCullers Jr. is in West Palm Beach, Fla., throwing to live hitters.

Should he suffer no setbacks or recurrences in his injured right forearm muscle, McCullers would take a fifth spot.

James’ arsenal is tantalizing. The former 34th-round pick has a fastball that can eclipse 100 mph. Two outings of more than 40 pitches did not diminish the velocity, either, and the stuff proved effective against baseball’s best offense.

Hinch acknowledged this week James is more than likely to remain a reliever.

For the final 16 games of the season, James could be deployed as he was on Wednesday — a bridge to the ninth inning — allowing Hinch to rest Rondon and/or Osuna at the back end.

Pressly needed to get the save, though, allowing the all-important off day to arrive on a good note.

Chandler Rome joined the Houston Chronicle in 2018 to cover the Astros after spending one year in Tuscaloosa covering Alabama football — during which Nick Saban asked if he attended college. He did, at LSU, where he covered the Tigers baseball team for nearly four years. He covered most of the Astros' 2015 playoff run, too, as an intern for MLB.com

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